Abstract
The Manhattan Project marked the beginning of the U.S. nuclear weapons enterprise. It produced the atomic bombs that obliterated two Japanese cities and was the genesis of the weapons complex that churned out thousands of nuclear warheads over the next several decades.
Should Americans be ashamed of the Manhattan Project? Should its buildings and machinery be left to decay? In this issue of the Bulletin, Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Rhodes answers that question with a passionate “no.” Whether people regard the Manhattan Project as a great scientific achievement or a monument to humanity's capacity for cruelty, few would disagree that it was a historically significant enterprise. As such, Rhodes notes, “Some recognizable part of it ought to be preserved. We have not destroyed, for example, the antebellum plantation houses of the American South even though they were built by slaves and rewarded slave owners.”
Even as we debate the preservation of the Manhattan Project, another Cold War icon remains open for business. Journalist Jennie Lay takes us on a tour of the Nevada Test Site–a 1,375-square-mile, open-air laboratory that was the venue for 100 atmospheric and 828 underground nuclear test explosions. Things quieted down at the test site in 1992, when the United States imposed a moratorium on nuclear testing. The site now hosts scientific experiments and homeland security exercises. Yet the Nevada site is currently required to be prepared for a full-scale nuclear test within 24 months. This worries arms control advocates, who believe that the Bush administration's proposed new generation of nuclear weapons–the Reliable Replacement Warhead Program–will inevitably require testing.
Another Cold War legacy that has found new life is the notion of “nuclear winter.” In the 1980s, a group of scientists concluded that a full-scale war between the United States and the Soviet Union could produce enough smoke to cut off the world from sunlight–prompting a severe temperature drop on Earth's surface. As former Bulletin editor Len Ackland reports, those researchers have come together again and concluded that even a regional nuclear conflict could produce enough smoke to affect agricultural production worldwide. “Their message today resonates as much as it did during the Cold War,” Ackland concludes. “No nation can hope to isolate itself from the consequences of using nuclear weapons.”
The Bulletin's iconic “Doomsday Clock,” which first appeared on its cover 60 years ago, captures that inescapable truth. The designer of the Clock–famed Chicago artist Martyl–commemorates the anniversary of her famous creation by painting this issue's cover. Like the Manhattan Project, some icons are destined to endure, even if we'd prefer to forget what they represent.